My present invention relates to a method of making brassiere underwires and to brassiere underwires made by the improved method.
Brassiere underwires are generally composed of metal or plastic and can be received in a slender pocket stitched beneath For the cup of a brassiere or formed as part of a brassiere frame. The underwire in parts shape to the brassiere and retains the shape of the cup. It is known to provide such underwires with tips at the ends thereof to prevent the underwire from poking through the fabrication of the brassieres and injuring the wearer and to provide the underwire, in addition, with a sewing flange, holds the tip or like means to enable the underwire to be stitched in place in the brassieres.
When the underwire is composed of metal, it is usually covered by a sheath of a plastic material and the tips can be injection molded onto the shaped wire.
While brassiere underwires have undergone considerable developments in the last decade, earlier underwires are still unsatisfactory for a variety of reasons. For example, the underwire may have insufficient stiffness in one or more planes or maybe so stiff as to be uncomfortable. Tips may pull off the underwire or may be incapable of preventing the underwire from poking through the fabrication. The underwire may have to be accessibly large to provide the requisite degree of stiffness or composed of a material which is effected by laundering and drying in normal use. By and large, therefore, the fabrication of brassiere underwires has called for further improvement.
It is, therefore, the principal object of the present invention to provide an improved method of making a brassiere underwire, whereby drawbacks of earlier underwires and there methods of fabrication can be obviated.
It is also an object of the invention to provide an improved brassiere underwire.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an article of manufacture which can be readily formed into a brassiere underwire.
These objects are attained, in accordance with the invention in a method of making brassiere underwires which comprises the steps of:
(a) forming a continuous strand of a hardenable material and applying at spaced-apart locations therealong, corresponding to desired lengths of brassiere underwires, pairs of thermoplastic tips each surrounding the strand;
(b) cutting the strand between the tips of each pair to separate the strand into successive lengths each having respective tips at extremities thereof; and
(c) shaping each of the lengths into a curved underwire shape and hardening the material of the shaped lengths to form a respective brassier underwire therefrom preformed with respective tips at the extremities thereof.
According to the invention, each of the pairs of tips are bridged by a thermoplastic web upon injection molding thereof onto the strand. The webs are cut away during the cutting of the strand into lengths. The lengths can be shaped in a half barrel mold in which the hardenable material, usually a carbon fiber or aramid fiber reinforced material such as a thermosetting resin can be baked as part of the hardening process.
Alternatively, the lengths can be shaped in cavities in a two plate mold.
According to a feature of the invention, the strand is formed as a fiber reinforced tube and that tube may be hollow or formed on a flexible polymeric core, e.g. of polyamide.
The tips are injection molded onto the continuous strand as thermoplastic members, e.g. of a polyamide.
Since the tips are formed on the strand at distances between them which determine the arc lengths and hence the size of the underwire for a particular size of brassieres, I may provide the tips of different colors as a function of the distances between the spaced apart locations so that the color of the tip can indicate the underwire size.
According to another feature of the invention, a sewing flange is formed on at least one of the tips of each pair. A soft zone can advantageously be provided between each tip and a hardened remainder of a respective length of each underwire.
According to yet another feature of the invention, the strand is originally formed with a circular cross section and that cross sectional shape is transformed into an oval during the molding and baking step.
The invention also is a brassiere can be comprised of an arcuate carbon fiber or aramid fiber wire segment formed with the injection molded tips at the extremities thereof and an article of manufacture adapted to produce brassiere underwires and which comprises the continuous strand of the hardenable material and pairs of plastic tips each surrounding the strand and located at spaced apart locations there along so that, when the strand is cut between the tips of each pair, individual lengths are formed which can be shaped to form the brassiere underwire.